The Japanese researchers have found that the coronavirus remains active on human skin for nine hours, and they urged the need for frequent hand washing to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. The study backs World Health Organization guidance for regular and thorough hand washing to limit transmission of the virus.
In a discovery they said showed that the pathogen that causes the flu survives on human skin for about 1.8 hours.
As cited News24xx.com from the study published in the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal wrote that the nine-hour survival of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus strain that causes COVID-19) on human skin may increase the risk of contact transmission in comparison with IAV (influenza A virus), thus accelerating the pandemic.
For that research, the team tested skin collected from autopsy specimens just one day after death, but the coronavirus and the flu virus are inactivated within 15 seconds by applying ethanol, which is used in hand sanitizers.
And as result, they found that the longer survival of SARS-CoV-2 on the skin increases contact-transmission risk.
“But, by hand hygiene can reduce this risk,” the study said.
As information, the virus has infected nearly 40 million people around the world since it first emerged in China late last year.
